A step by step guide to create Bing Local Listings
In our previous articles, we have talked a lot about the potential to attract traffic through local searches. As per some statistics, local searches lead 50% of the mobile visitors to visit store within a day. So, if you are an owner of a brick-and-mortar business, you might already be aware of the importance of local listings to rank well in local search results.
Local SEO or local online marketing is the perfect way to harness the local traffic, which is out there looking for a business like you. Here is where the importance of local business listings come into place. We have already talked about the importance of Google Local listings in the last article, so we will keep this article to discussing about how to get listed in Bing Places.
Bing Places is an advanced search facility launched by Bing in April 2013 to connect your local business with local consumers in a quicker and easier way by listing your businesses with the search engines. So, you see the core idea remains the same. It is a platform that helps the local business owners to claim and manage their local listings on the search engines. This simply means that when a potential customer is looking out for a product or a service that you offer, your business would show up in the local results in Bing. Hence, getting your business listed on Bing Places can be an excellent way to expand your brand awareness.
It’s pretty easy to get to build your listing on Bing Places for Business, formerly know as “Bing business Portal”.
This is a step-by-step guide on how to submit your business or website to Bing Places:
Step 1: Get started
Type on the search bar ‘Bing Places for business’ and click on the first link or simply click here. This will take you to the Welcome Screen, which would appear the same like the screenshot below:
Now, after you have successfully created your listing on Bing Places, you can always click on the “Sign-in” option to manage and update your listings.
But, since we are starting fresh (create a new listing), we need to click on “Get Started”
Step 2: Add a New Business Listing or Claim Your Existing business
For the purpose of explaining, I am going to take the example of “Island Pacific Hotel” situated in Hong kong. After completing the first step, you will be directed to the following:
Here, you have to enter your business details to either build a new business listing or claim an existing one. You have two combination as options for entering your details:
- Entering the Country/Region: The drop down gives you the option of choosing the country of your business's physical location. I have used ‘Hong Kong’ here, as my hotel (example) is located there.
- Phone Number: This should be your business’s local phone number.
OR
- Business Name: This is your actual business name, which in my case is “Island Pacific Hotel”.
- Location: Here you are required to enter the complete details of your business address, (ie. the address of your business’s physical location) by either using a combination of City, State or Zip code or specifying a Zip code.
You can select whichever way you want. Once you are done with filling the information, you can go ahead and click on “Search”.
After this, you will be directed to the following screen:
Now, if you have already created your business listing, you can click on “Claim Business”. But since we are learning how to create your listings, we will click on “Create new business”
Step 3: Login to your Microsoft Account and Add your Business Details
Once you create new business, you will come across this screen:
Here you are required to enter your email-id or mobile number registered with your Microsoft Account (anything you use to sign in to Hotmail, SkyDrive or Xbox LIVE). If you do not already have one, you can easily create by clicking on “Get a New Microsoft Account”. Once you are done with all that, it’s time to fill in the details:
Fill in the below details:
- Business Name: Make sure that you enter the correct and accurate address. This will not only help the customers in finding your business (As the same address will appear in the search results), but will also be helpful for the search engines.
- Address: Again, accuracy is the key here. Be sure that you are entering your exact physical location. Include the Country, City and ZIP Code.
Once you are done with entering the address, click on ”Move on pin” (situated just besides “Address”) and markup your exact location on Bing Maps.
After doing all the above, click on “Next”. The second page would appear like:
You are required to enter the following here:
- Category: This is your business category, i.e area where your business offers products or services. You should select the category that most accurately describes your business. This will help you get relevant traffic and increased conversions. You can either directly enter your category and select from the suggestion drop down the exact and accurate category or click on the “Browse button”. This will give you a list of options to choose from. You can select more than one category, but make sure that the primary category you choose accurately describes your business.
- Description of your Business: Briefly describe your business here to let the customers know as to what they can expect from your business. You can list your specialisations, awards, professional affiliations, features of the products or qualities of the services your business offers etc. This will help you ensure that the right customers are reaching you.
After filling out these 2, you can click on “Next” and come to the next section where you are required to fill your contact details:
In the Contact details:
- Add your main local phone number (which should not be a toll free 800 number), through which the customers could connect to you.
- You can the link to your website in the column “Main Website”.
- E-mail address which could be used by the users to connect to you.
In the Additional contact details:
- The link to your Facebook, Twitter or any other profile.
- Any alternative number that you wish to provide.
Once you are done, click on “Next”. This would be the next window, where you can upload the pictures of your business:
Photos help your business stand out of other search results. Adding photos can enrich your listings and help you get more attention from the customers. You can upload a maximum of 10 photos here. I would suggest to upload as much as you can.
After uploading the picture, click on “Next”. This section will ask you to fill in your working hours:
Through this information, you can let the customers know when your business is open. You have the options of choosing two different time periods for each day.
When done with filling out this, click on “Next”.
You can similarly fill out the next two sections, which are in particular to the service you provide. Since, I am building a listing for a hotel business, these sections provide me the option of submitting my menu, price list, amenities etc.
After you are done with entering every information, click on “Submit”.
Step 4: Verification
Bing will send a post containing the verification pin at the address you had mentioned in the details with 3-5 business days. So make sure it is a valid address for postal delivery.
Voila, your listing has been created!
Once you get your verification pin, your listing would be published on Bing local results.
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